SAW devices are successfully used in wireless communication systems as a result of their small size and low insertion loss provided by resonator-type structures, built on piezoelectric substrates with high electromechanical coupling factor. Such devices commonly utilize low-attenuated quasi-bulk leaky surface acoustic waves (LSAW) characterized by high electromechanical coupling factor. Such waves are known to exist in two piezoelectric crystals belonging to the same symmetry class 3m, lithium tantalate, LiTaO3 (LT), and lithium niobate, LiNbO3 (LN). Recently, devices fabricated using non-leaky quasi-shear horizontal waves devices have been reported. The suppression of the leakage effect results when the surface on which the acoustic wave propagates is sufficiently loaded so as to slow the wave velocity such that its value is less than that of the slow quasi-shear bulk wave propagating in the same direction. For example, 15YX LN devices employing thick copper electrodes have been reported by Hashimoto et al, and by Takayama et al. and Kadota et al, the disclosures of which are detailed later in this specification.